Situated at the confluence of the North and South Thompson Rivers in the Thompson Valley, the sprawling city of Kamloops takes its name from the First Nations word Kahm-o-loops, meaning meeting of the waters. Water isn't the only thing that meets here; the Trans-Canada, the Yellowhead and Highway 97 all meet in Kamloops, as do the two national rail lines, CP and CN.

The Secwepemc nation has inhabited the Kamloops region for thousands of years, basing their society on hunting and gathering and a dynamic trading economy. It was the native fur trade that first attracted white interest to the area, and dramatically changed the lives of the Shuswap Indians. The Secwepemc called the location of the present city Cumcloups. During the fur trade era the name Kamloops denoted the Indian settlement, but after 1867, the aboriginal name was gradually adopted for the village as a whole, with Kamloops being incorporated as a town in 1893.

David Stuart and Alexander Ross visited Kamloops in 1811. Stuart returned the following year to set up the first fur trading post, the American-owned Pacific Fur Company. Two years later the rival Northwest Fur Company had set up a post, and by 1821, the Hudson's Bay Company had taken control of the fur trade in Kamloops.

Gold Rush fever in the 1850s and the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s contributed to the rapid expansion of the settlement. Until the 1860s, the Fort at Kamloops was an important depot for the horse-drawn pack trains that travelled to and from the coast.